Human head, fire mark Mexico elections

Mexico’s ruling party sought to keep key governorships in local elections, with focus on a state where a head was dumped near a polling place and a mayor’s house was torched. Several acts of violence were reported in the oil-rich eastern state of Veracruz, which has been led by President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for more than 80 years. Veracruz is the biggest trophy among 12 states choosing new governors in a vote considered as a test for the PRI’s hopes of keeping the presidency in the 2018 presidential election.